The Distance Between Us
by whiterose55
Summary: Xion is forced to move with her dad but maybe she'll find something she never knew she wanted from the bad boy living in her backyard. AU high school story Xion/Riku On Hiatus.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Please review just try not to be too mean and constructive criticism is welcome. I'm also looking for a beta so if anyone is interested let me know.**

****Disclaimer:** I do not own any characters from Kingdom Hearts.**

**Chapter One:**

The sun blazed down on my arm, through the window of the car. I welcomed the heat it warmed my whole arm, the arm that wasn't covered by a cast. I hated this stupid thing on my left arm, it reminded me of everything that had happened in the past week. I hated being in a car, the music did nothing to ease my nerves.

"You're awfully quiet kid, you always this quiet?" my dad who I hadn't seen in person in seven years asked.

"Yeah," I responded. Like he actually cared about what I thought.

"Your brother is very excited about seeing you again, you know," my dad tried to start a conversation.

"Great," I replied not keeping all the sarcasm out of my voice. My dad looked at me, I wished he wouldn't do that it made me nervous. "Keep your eyes on the road." I said roughly. He looked back in front of him. He didn't try to make conversation again. I was glad.

I hated him. Not like the normal type of hate where kids say the hate their parents but they really love them deep down inside. I felt no love for this man that I hardly knew. The only time I even registered that he existed was when he would send me a card and money inside for my birthday.

I used to see him and my brother every summer for a week until I was ten. Then he got back together with his ex-wife, my brothers mother, and all contact stopped with me and my mom, except when he would send child support and my birthday money of course.

I looked out the window watching the trees fly by. A sharp memory came to mind of wheels screeching and a sharp turn. I immediately stopped thinking, I took a deep breathe trying to stop the tears that threatened to come down. I looked over at my dad he hadn't changed much since I had last seen him, his brown hair now had lines of gray in it and there was crinkles next to his eyes and mouth, memories of the laughter from his life. He must have felt me looking at him because he turned to look at me with dark blue eyes, he smiled at me. To an on-looker the smile would have seemed genuine but I knew better. He didn't have a choice but to act friendly towards me, just as he didn't have a choice but to take me in. I rolled my eyes and looked back out the window.

My mom, who I loved so deeply, was in a coma. That was even hard to think. Tears sprung into my eyes again, I took deep calming breathes to stop the tears. But even then I couldn't stop the sniffling that started.

"Hey, kid, it's going to be alright," I heard my dad say in a calm voice. Anger surged through me, my face flushed and I clinched my teeth together to make sure I wouldn't scream out in pure rage.

"You don't know anything," I replied through my teeth. I heard him inhale sharply, but luckily he didn't say anything. I was left alone to my thoughts. I would give anything to have somewhere else to go, but my grandparents were all dead and my mom didn't have any siblings. There was her boyfriend, Will, who was like a father to me but he was in no condition to take care of me and I didn't want to burden him with my presence. He put up a slight fight when I told him my dad was coming to take me to his house in Twilight Town. He said that it was too far for me to go there and it would be hard starting a new school in the middle of fall semester during my senior year.

I told Luke it didn't matter about school, I had no real friends here in Destiny Island anyways. I also said that he wasn't in any condition to baby-sit a seventeen year old angst ridden girl. He tried to smile at me and reassure me he was fine but I knew he wasn't he spent every waking moment at the hospital waiting for my mom to wake up. So I told him I would go to my dads until my mom woke up, if she woke up…No I couldn't think like that, she would wake up. She had to wake up.

The drive to Twilight Town wasn't a very long one just three hours, which bothered me a bit. Three hours is not long to drive to visit your daughter at least once a month, dull pains of anger went through me. It was an old anger and I had long ago come to terms with the fact that my dad did not care enough about me to try to build a relationship with me. It was the government that had told him to take me in, he was the only blood relative I had and since Will wasn't married to my mom and I had told him that I didn't want him to watch over me, the job landed on my dad.

We pulled into Twilight Town. There was kids everywhere and the streets were full of cars. I had visited here once or twice when I was younger but I never liked it much. I wasn't one for big cities I preferred the stability of a small town. I felt claustrophobic with so much people around. We drove through the town, my dad pointed at my new school. It was huge and I felt slightly nervous about going there.

We pulled into a pretty big house. I remember it slightly from my younger days but for some reason it seemed so much bigger now. I saw three cars parked in the drive way and a motorcycle. I saw someone staring at me through the blinds of the second story and they quickly closed them. I made to get out of the car but my dad stopped me.

"Listen before we go in I need to warn you about some people that are staying with us. The lady is going through a rough patch and she's a very good friend of your step-moms, so we offered her a place to stay. However, her son is a bet of a wild one," he said making a face like saying a wild one was an understatement. "Just stay away from him, it shouldn't be very hard they're living in the guest house in the back yard. But if you want to go for a swim in the pool make sure someone else goes with you."

"You have a pool?" I asked, that was new. Last time I came there wasn't a guest house and there wasn't a pool it was just a bare backyard. I guess my dad and his family had made adjustments.

"Yes, your step-mom wanted one," he explained. "But that's beside the point, just promise me that you'll stay away from that boy."

"I promise," I said. Why would he even make me promise something like that. I never really was into boys, sure I had crushes here and there and I had a boyfriend for like three months, but I never went out looking for them. And now more than ever boys were the last things on my mind.

"Xion!" I heard a wailing noise coming from the front door. I looked over and saw Linda, my step-mom, she was holding something in her arms. She came running over to me and the small something jumped every time she took a step. She got to the passenger door and through it open. I saw that the small something was a baby. I stared at it completely shocked. Linda always being the oblivious one took me out by her one free hand and gave me a tight one armed hug.

I looked at the blonde baby sitting in her arms. It was a girl, she had a smile on her face. She had rosy, chubby cheeks and no teeth. I looked over at my dad who was getting out of the car he gave me an apologetic look. I looked over at Linda's huge blonde haired head and stared at her giant, toothy smile.

"You had a baby?" I choked out.

"Oh yes," she replied. "This is Lily. Lily say hi to your big sister."

I looked straight at my dad. "You couldn't call me and tell me that I had a baby sister?" I yelled at him.

"I'm sorry baby," I heard Linda say. I blanched at the nickname. "We were going to tell you when things got less hectic, but that time never came and now this horrible tragedy. I'm so sorry."

I looked over at Linda and the baby. I took a deep breathe I could feel my anger fading and the heart shattering depression start to take over. So what if I had a sister? And so what if my dad didn't tell me the happy news? There was already so many changes happening in my life what's one more change? I sighed and headed into the house.

"I'll bring your bags in and leave them in your room," I heard my dad call out to me. I made my way into the house. Everything looked almost the same it was a little unsettling. I went through the living room which had a huge TV and some sort of video system connected to it, to the kitchen. The kitchen was just as I remembered it except with more baby stuff in it. The island in the middle of the kitchen was full of fruit, I went and took an apple from the basket. I continued my way to the dining room. This was different before when I used to visit my dad it was painted yellow and had a small four seat table. Now it was dark red with an eight seat table and a high chair in it.

I took a bite of the apple and went back into the living room. Next to the stair case was a room I knew to be my dad's study. And next to the study was a bathroom. I decided to go up the stairs instead. I knew there was four rooms upstairs, and mine was at the end of the hall to the left next to the bathroom, while the master bedroom was to the right. I made my way past a door that was my brothers room if I remembered correctly and passed through another room with the door open. It used to be a storage room but now I saw my dad and Linda sitting in a bright pink room.

I tried to sneak by unnoticed but my dad looked at the door just as I was passing by.

"Xion, come in," he said. I took one step into the room. I saw a white crib with painted flowers on in and a rocking chair where Linda was sitting rocking the baby. "Look me and Linda both feel very bad about how you found out about Lily. We wanted to tell you but I just couldn't find a way of telling you on the drive over here. We should have told you about the baby when she was pregnant but we had been pregnant before and things fell through on that. So we thought it best to wait till the baby was born to share the news with other people. I was going to call and tell you but as you know a doctors life is very hectic and I couldn't find the time."

I had had enough of his excuses, so I said "okay no problem dad" and left to my room. I walked in and memories flooded my mind. It was exactly the same. The light purple walls, the queen sized bed and the white desk sitting in the corner of the room. My bags sat on my bed and I began to unpack, with my one good hand. I put my headphones on to drown out the rest of the world. I was dancing around when I caught sight of myself in the full length mirror I had.

I could not believe the difference one week could make. I looked skinner and my face looked paler. My once shoulder length raven hair was cut short and very badly too. When I was first released from the hospital and I looked at myself in the mirror and went Britney Spears on myself. I used my right hand to cut my hair off, I would have cut more off if Will hadn't walked in and took the scissors away from me. After that he hid all of the sharp objects from me. I looked at myself now and saw what damage I had done to my hair. My cast was light blue and it stood about against my pale skin. I had a cut coming done from the right side of my face and even though I couldn't not see it under my clothes I knew I had bruises that were starting to fade. It wasn't that bad, my injuries it wasn't fair that I got out practically unscathed while my mom….I stifled a sob.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you so much to the people who added this story to their alerts and for the reviews I relieved. And a big thank you to BeyondTheClouds, for betaing for me. **

**Chapter Two**

I sat on my bed listening to music blaring through my ear buds. My eyes were shut when I felt something tap my foot. I opened one eye to see who was interrupting my moping. I saw two big bright blue eyes and a head full of untamable brown hair, his smile was so wide it was infectious. I took off my ear buds and opened both of my eyes.

"Xion!" Sora yelled loudly.

"Hi Sora," I replied.

He came to sit next to me on the bed- his wide smile fading. He wrapped his arms around me, and I leaned into him. All these weeks I've been trying to keep myself together unraveled. I let myself feel the pain and the comfort my brother was giving me. It was always this simple with him, we didn't need words to understand each other.

"I'm so sorry, Xion," he whispered into my hair. That was all I needed to let my tears fall. I clung to him and he wrapped his arms around me tighter in response. I heard a baby's crying and I remembered where I was. I let go of him and wiped my tears.

"I'm sorry, too," I said.

"Why?"

"For not responding to your texts and e-mails." I used to talk to Sora daily, but for the past two years I just found it easier to distance myself from him. He would talk about how great his life was and how dad really did love me and how he just didn't know how to express it. I found his upbeat view of life so different from my bleak look at it, so I just couldn't handle talking to him. But now I felt like what I needed was his smile and his warmth that he radiated.

"It's fine, I understand," he said with a small smile. "But if you would have answered one of my calls in the last year, you might have not been so shocked with the whole baby thing."

I grimaced. "Yeah."

"Hey I'm going out for pizza with a group of friends. Do you want to come? I'll introduce you to some people so you won't feel so lost tomorrow at school."

"I'm not really in the mood, Sora."

"Are you sure, Xion? It might be fun, my friends don't bite," he teased gently. I thought about it but I had already dealt with so much today that meeting new people was not first in my agenda.

"Really, Sora, I just want to sleep," I said as I layed back down on my bed and putting my ear buds back on. I closed my eyes and felt the bed mov with the sudden weight gone. I peaked one eye open and saw Sora leave the room, closing the door behind him.

I lied on my bed for awhile trying to fall into something that at least resembled sleep. All my mind could do however, is play over and over the crash. The smell of blood and metal mixing into a strange musk scent that filled my nostrils. I hear myself yelling but no sound coming out. The lights that surrounded me, flashing a bright red, my mother on a stretcher with her eyes closed, so still.

I jumped up from my bed pulling my ear buds out and ran out of my room. I didn't know where I was going I just needed to escape from these memories- these nightmares. I went down the stairs and turned left- hitting something hard as I turned.

"Oh," I huffed. I looked up to see what I had ran into. Two bright aquamarine eyes stared at me with a bored expression, silver hair cascaded down to his shoulders. It was a boy no older then me or Sora.

"Watch it," the boy said gruffly, as he shoved passed me. I stood there in shock. Who was that? And what right did he have to talk to me so rudely, this was my house, well my fathers house so partly mine right? I felt anger rising my cheeks flaming with heat.

I turned and followed him to the living room. He wasn't there. So I opened the door to the backyard and saw his retreating silver hair as he went towards the guest house. I was about to yell at him when I noticed my surroundings.

I stood on a patio with a stone barbeque to the right of me. The wooden steps in front of me led to the most amazing pool. All along the pool was small lights lighting the garden. To the right of the pool was a seating area, which was surrounded with flowers and small trees. To the left of the pool sat the guest house my father had told me he built. The guy had disappeared into the guest house, I could see lights on inside. I thought about going in and giving me a piece of my mind but decided against it.

I followed the lights down the steps, walking along the edge of the glowing pool until I was at the end of it. There was three lounge chairs at the farthest end of the pool and I took the middle one. I sat there staring into the pool and memories flooded me when I would go swimming in Destiny Island.

I've never actually been in a pool, with the ocean so close to you why bother going to the pool? I can remember the feel of the salt water as it dried on my skin. I longed to be back home sitting on the beach, feeling the warm sand in between my toes. I leaned back on the chair and closed my eyes trying to remember every good thing about island.

The hot blazing sun on my pale cool skin. The sweet, salty, and tangy smell of the ocean. The waves slowly crashing against the sand. Children screaming running from the waves, parents talking and sun bathing. Teenagers flirting and buying cokes at the stands. A door slamming shut…

I opened my eyes and saw that a door had actually slammed shut. The boy who had been so rude before was standing outside of the guest house door, staring at me.

"What?" I barked at him. He just gave a glare and stocked off back into the house. I flipped him off behind his back.

I noticed he was wearing black shorts and a black shirt He didn't have any shoes on, and I also noticed something on his ankle. It looked like a big bulky bracelet, but before I could examine it any further he went back into the house and shut the door.

I sighed, realizing there was school tomorrow. I reluctantly got up and trudged back into my room. I threw myself face first onto the bed, praying for a dreamless sleep...


End file.
